Van Buildout: Trial Trip #2

The end of our time in Utah is quickly coming to an end. If nothing goes horribly wrong then we only have one month left! Being reminded of that sent me into a panic that we hadn't seen very much of this beautiful state, so I set out to plan a 9-day national park visit.

Since this is a van-focused blog, I'll start with some van-specifics, but if you're board of that you can skip ahead to my park review, below.

The Van

This time around we had some improvements: a few lower cabinet faces, bed hydraulics to make it easier to access the under-bed, and a designated bunny space all helped to improve the interior organization and livability. A few other small improvements included a slightly shorter bed frame (so that we can eventually add a footboard and head board and so the mattress isn't moving around as much), some magnetic window covers (for improved insulation and stealth), a fully insulated ceiling, and ten ceiling lights (previously there was only six). 

There were two major improvements: a venting fan and a sink. If you see any other cargo vans on the road that appear to have a black box on top, that's likely a ceiling fan (used to help pull moisture out and to keep it cool) and that's likely a lived-in vehicle. The venting system is also crucial for keeping the internal temperatures comfortable for our sweet baby bunny, or whatever other van pets others choose to keep. 

Along with the undercount sink, the water system now includes a 42-gallon water tank, two built-in soap dispensers, a countertop, and an on-demand hot water. Cameron also made a sink cover to help extend the counter space, but in our rush to leave we accidentally left that home). 

The final bonus was a cell extender. It didn't help 100% of the time, but there were a few times where we had it off and then when we flipped the switch we immediately went from zero bars of service to one or two bars. It was especially helpful this trip since I was trying to work while in semi-remote spaces. 

Although we had plenty of improvements, there were a few mistakes, but nothing major. The cabinet hinges will probably need to be rethought, since they are busting through the wood and were very shaky – we had to use clamps to hold the cabinet face on during driving. Now with the lower cabinet in, it's also difficult to check the coolant levels. We may need to put in an opening or construct a mirror system to have visual access to that. The other minor mistake, that we learned after multiple RV park stays, is that we put our electrical hookup on the wrong side of the van. All RV parks seem to have their sewage, water, and electricity hookups on the driver side. It's an easy fix, but not a necessary one. 

From this trip, we also came up with some ideas that may get integrated into the final build: 

1) A removable clothes line behind the front seats to hang up wet clothing and towels. When not used as a drying line, a sheet could be thrown over it to cut off the cabin to improve nighttime insulation.

2) We'll eventually need to decide on a trash can location, and I think attached to the back of the driver's seat might be a good spot that's always out of the way, regardless of seat orientation.

3) If we have a non-permanent stove (TBD) than I would like to have a hinged top-open storage area under the passenger-side counter. That would help improve floor space, since traditional drawers would need to pull out into the walkway.

4) Once all of our cabinetry and shelving is in, we'll lose the besides-the-bed window cover storage we've been using. Although it would detract from the ceiling's final beauty, we could have a stretch net (like what you see behind the front row seats in a regular passenger car) above the bed for the covers to slip into.

5) To reduce bonking our heads on the ceiling, instead of wooden cabinets and shelving we could construct canvas sack clothing storage. We may need to do a test round on this, because keeping clothes organized in what will essentially be a hanging bag, albeit structured, might be difficult. 

Glamour shot! (In Capitol Reef National Park)

This time we have fun blue lower shelving, a designated rabbit staple (bottom left cupboard), and a sink. Wires are still loose, but we're working on permanent walls to hide those.  

Can you spot all of the bunnies (included Queen P)?

Captain Pancake at the helm. The insulation on the left wall was exposed for this trip, but the blue tape held up surprisingly well. You can see our permanent ceilings (and kind of our new vent) and our temporary gray tank. Clearly from the pile on the right side, we will greatly benefit from having upper shelving.

Pancake's favorite spot. Clearly we need a better solution for hanging damp towels. 

There's enough room to lay down to get on Pancake's level, so it's big enough for us!

Honestly, I'm really pleased with our van progress and I think our goal date of April 15th is possible. I'm also quite pleased with our national park trip, so let's get into that!

Zion National Park

If Zion were not such a beautiful starting point, our day may have been horrendous. We were slowed down by a marathon on the road, we paid $20 for parking unnecessarily, we had heavy rain, and then heavy cold snow which we were not prepared for. Neither Cameron or I though to bring waterproof shoes, micro spikes, trekking poles, or appropriately warm clothes. Luckily, Zion is gorgeous and the hearers were running in the Zion shuttles.

We started with the challenging Angel's Landing – a very strenuous, steep hike that has many cliffy drops and requires heavy reliance on the built-in changes. If we hadn't zoomed through, we would have missed the temporary high-fog views, which were replaced with a wall of snow ten minutes after our arrival at the top. Getting back down was especially tricky. The snow was accumulating and getting compressed by many boots into a pretty slick slope that was far too narrow for the two-way traffic it had to handle. 

The snow continued to fall the rest of the morning as we went an extra mile (literally) to the Emerald Pools before breaking for lunch at Zion Lodge. The sun came out long enough for us to decide to shuttle to the end of the scenic road and hike the short Riverwalk trail. Although there was enough daylight for another hike, we opted to return to the van, check in on the bunny, and then walk around town.

I can tell Zion get's busy during peak season, but I would like to eventually go back to to the deep-water hike through the Narrows, but as that hike includes some chest-deep water crossings, it will have to be during warm weather.

Look how cute we are at the top of Angel's Landing!

We did have a few moments of blue skies on the hike up.

"Willie's Wiggles" were steep, but well constructed. 

Follow the chains and follow the crowd. 

Looking down at the river and road from the top.

This photo was taken at 9:50.

This photo was taken at 10:10.

Cold and wet at the Upper Emerald Pool.

Once it stopped snowing, we were left with really pretty scenery. This photo was taken along the Riverwalk.

Bryce Canyon National Park

The red hoodoos were capped with cute little white snow caps. Although we eventually took the scenic drive, the best views were of Bryce Amphitheater, near the visitor's center. Our morning hike was the 8-mile Fairyland Loop, which took us through stretches of long views followed by meanings through hoodoos and fins. 

After lunch in the van, we ventured back out to do the Figure 8 Loop, which took us through the Queens Garden, Navajo Loop, and Peek-A-Boo Loop. If you just have half a day, this is the hike to do! I loved the Wall of Windows and the uniform hoodoo columns that looked like Chinese Terracotta Army. Everything we saw was stunning, and I think Bryce was my favorite of this week's parks.

Our first views of Bryce Amphitheater were awesome, but there was so much more to see!

Look at those cute snow capped hoodoos. 

The uniform hoodoo pillars that I dubbed "the Terracotta Army."

Views were just so stunning! My phone died at the end of the day because of how many photos I was taking.

Just look how stunning this is!

We did get some new snow during the afternoon.

Some people hiking along, for scale. The whole time we were trekking I was trying to figure out a pun along the lines of "who done it in the hoodoos," but I never got to anything I was fully happy with.

This was my favorite section  – looking over at the Windows. 

Escalante Staircase National Monument

With just a half day available and not a real need to go back to Bryce, we decide to take a drive down Scenic Byway 12. The drive, mostly through Escalante, was gorgeous on its own. We headed a few miles down a roughish dirt road to the Zebra Slot Canyon trailhead. The trail started off through grassy sage brush and juniper trees. We walked along a little dry stream bed which slowly grew into a larger wash with interesting rock formations. 

The canyon itself was not very long (at least not the part that we could access) but it had steep walls and a narrow footpath that continued to get narrower as we got deeper. Due to the limited pathway, emphasized by some puddles, we had to climb up the rock walls by spitting our weight across both wall faces. It didn't take long to realized I needed to drop my backpack in order to continue. 

The pink and white striping was fascinating, but it was a little scary. I was worried I might twist a knee or get an ankle stuck in a crack. Some stretches were long enough to be quite strenuous, but when I needed a rest I could just reconfigure so that I could sit between the two rock faces. This may have been my favorite since hike for the trip, and if we're down in the area again we might go further down that dirt road to Spooky and Peek-A-Boo Canyons.

On another half day, we went to Lower Creek Falls. These falls were from my original research project as one of the top things to see in Utah. The 6-mile round trip hike went through increasingly deepening canyon and ended at a 127-foot waterfall. It had a beautiful blue pool of water surrounded by sand and an unobstructed view. The destination was gorgeous, but the hike wasn't spectacular. 

Can you spot the Cameron?

This is how we had to navigate the canyon.

The striping is the reason for Zebra Canyon's name.

Lower Creek Falls were pretty stunning. They'd be a great little oasis in the summer. 

Capitol Reef National Park

I don't think we saw Capitol Reef in the peek conditions. There are some shady and river hikes that would be a wonderful oasis in summer heat, but it was too cold for just to take advantage of that. Another key benefit are the fruit orchards within the park that offer free snacks, but in early March all of the trees were still winter-bare. 

Cameron was able to do a little extra hiking while I worked during the morning, and he said Frying Pan was his favorite hike for this park, but that might have been because he saw a family of long horned sheep. My favorite hike of the day was Cassidy Arch, which was cool because we could stand on top of the arch. We also went up Grand Wash and hiked the Capitol Gorge Trail. Both hikes had interesting elements, but I wasn't stunned.

I was a little underwhelmed by Capitol Reef. We saw a nice sunset (cut short by another short snow storm), petroglyphs, pioneer rock etchings from the 1800s, and big pools of water called "the tanks," but everything was fairly mundane in comparison to the other parks. 

Fruita's orchards with some of the local wildlife.

Cassidy Arch, with someone walking accross it. 

One of the walls of petroglyphs. 

This is the "pioneer register." 1888 is the oldest date I can spot.

One of "the tanks" which hold water all year round, making this area a good spot for pioneers to come through.

This hike was called the Narrows, but after our slot canyon experience it felt quite roomy.

Historic farm house in Fruita. We stayed at the National Park's campground in Fruita, so many trail heads were really easy access.

The Goosenecks.

Dead Horse Point State Park

This was another top-see part of Utah that I had found months ago. The park is named after the trapping approach of cowboys in the area, who would corral wild horses towards the tip of a narrow plateau, cut off the return, and then sort through their catch. 

Compared to what we later saw at Canyonlands (which is only a few miles further down the road from Dead Horse), the views were pretty limited, but still very pretty. We did the 5-mile loop from the visitor's center, plus all of the overlook side trails. By far, the best part was the main view point, which you could just drive to, but it was nice to walk, instead. There were views of the Colorado River and many large rock formations, all of which would have been pretty to see at sunset, but we decided to grab some food in Moab and head to our RV park. Overall impression – it's great on it's own, but if you're going to visit Canyonlands National Park, you can probably skip this one.

The water you can see on the horizon is a set of "evaporation fields."

Looking at the Colorado River before it flows into the Grand Canyon.

Our afternoon at Dead Horse was the best weather we had at that point.

The longest side trail took us to this interesting set of pocket holes. 

The same spur had some of the best views. It would have been a cool spot for sunset, but we were pretty and decided not to stay that late. 

Arches National Park

Arches is like the Disneyland of national parks – it's quite compact with lots of "wow" factors, but there definitely are crowds that you need to contend with. We started with Utah's most well-known natural structure – Delicate Arch. The trail was neat, mostly going over slickrock with some pathways cut into the sides of steep rock walls, but it was mobbed with families. The arch was larger and prettier than I expected. The lighting was poor when we arrived (about 10am), but there was still a line of folks who wanted to have a solo photo in front of the arch. Cameron and I were sneaky and followed the slope toward the other side of the arch. It wasn't as delicate looking from the back side, but it was much more private.

We then continued to Devil's Garden Loop, which was probably my favorite all-around trail of the trip. We saw at least half-a-dozen arches while hiking along the slightly challenging "primitive" trail. Landscape Arch was impressively late, but my favorites were Partition Arch and Navajo Arch, which both felt private and pretty. The trail was hard to follow in a few places, but we met a new friend who helped us find our way back.

We finished up with just enough time to zoom down to Balanced Rock, where we watched the last stages of sunset. It was lovely looking over at the La Sal Mountains and the Windows Arches, despite the cold. With nothing better to do, we made dinner in the car, watched a show on the iPad, and then stepped out again at ~8:00 for some star gazing.

Delicate Arch from the front.

The view you don't often get of Delicate Arch.

And the best view of Delicate Arch, through another arch.

Landscape Arch

Partition Arch

Navajo Arch

Part of the Primitive Trail.

Double O Arch

Sunset on Balanced Rock.

I didn't take any starlight photos, but here's the last view of the sun for the night.

Canyonlands National Park

Last but not least, the biggest park of our trip. Based on the suggestion of a park ranger, we took the 11-mile Murphy Loop. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed. It was a long hike with a steep 1400 descent/ascent and a 3-mile slog though a sandy wash, but not a lot of views and payoff for all of the hard work. The 1400 foot drop was actually the best part of the trail, but I wouldn't recommend it for most people. 

The other short overlook trails we did later were better: White Rim Overlook and Upheaval Dome. The Dome felt like looking into the caldera of a volcanos, but the theories for how the salt deposits got there are still being researched. 

I was a little disappointed with Canyonlands overall, but I think I was also experiencing amazement fatigue. I would like to come back and check out another region of the park (we were at Islands in the Sky, but I think Needles may have better long hike options), and I would also like to get a permit for the Fiery Furnace in Arches. 

The best part of living out of your vehicle is that there is hot food and cold drinks available almost immediately upon your return to the car. We can eat any time and we don't have to drive "home" if we don't want to. We have enough battery capacity (at least until we install the air conditioning) to last close to a week without hooking up, so we can spend the night anywhere that looks interesting. For now, I can work while Cameron drives, so it feels like double productivity. The reverse isn't as easy since Cameron gets carsickness, but hopefully most of our driving will be on weekends when that doesn't matter. I also really like how quick it is to sweep up when there is so little floor space. My tune may change after a more extended period in the van, but so far it's great!

The best views we had from our Murphy Loop hike – interesting, but not awe-inspiring.

Can you spot our trail? We basically went straight up the rock face.

We got better views of White Rim Canyon from the other overlook hike I picked out.

Looking down into Upheaval Dome.